Gertrude Grob Prandl as Turandot

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Gertrude Grob Prandl as Turandot

Рет қаралды 10,141

15 жыл бұрын

"When Grob Prandl sang Turandot, the walls shook" Irmgard Seefried famously said. Decide for yourself in this German language version. Grob Prandl also sang the role in Italian, and in English for Covent Garden.

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@acacia-bloom 14 жыл бұрын

I love that ringing vibrato - reminds me of Rysanek. I am sure the microphones those days werent able to record voices of that power and size realistically.

@alexanderzaphir721 5 жыл бұрын

Technique,huge volume,perfect intonation, fearless accurate top notes.One of my favorite singers.Best....was bluten muss....ever

@lawally 14 жыл бұрын

i love it.... she totally drowns out the poor tenor!! What a voice

@robertevans8010 3 жыл бұрын

Grob Prandl I heard many times, In London, Austria and Italy, her voice was incredible in House and extremely powerful, her performances of Wagner and Strauss were a pleasure to here, she had a beaming smile, many would like to say that Nilsson was better, I have heard Nilsson even more, but this Lady was not cold as to say, Nilsson I would say was an admirer of Grob Prandl, but audiences in London and Vienna Turin and Rome certainly were also very warm to Grob Prandl, her Isolde and Brunnhilde was every bit as good as Nilssons, her singing of Mozart also was very good in German, but I saw her in Elektra, she was better than Nilsson to my ears and was not a bad actress, but as great as these two were in Wagner, they could not match Frida Leider, to my ears, her voice was much more Italianate, also Leider was a great Musician as were the other two ladies, Grob Prandl was trained as a Classical Pianist, I am now rather old at 101 but I heard Leider with Melchior in 1931 at nearly 12 years old in Tristan, they were absolutely well matched and obviously enjoyed singing Together, I saw Flagstad with Melchior as well, but I still will say it was Leider's voice that I preferred, but anyone of these Ladies were in different Galaxies to many of the other singers I heard especially in Wagner, apart from Gwyneth Jones and a couple of others, the art of singing Wagner and I may say other Composers as been lost,. The last opera I saw was Andrea Chenier about six years ago, I have not been since, I was told you should listen to this Tenor he is great, I was told, I left after Si fu Soldato, I was shocked at the noise I was hearing Kaufman was the Tenor? , it was horrible, the only Singer I thought was of Class was the lady that sang Madelon, if these are the best as to say, well I say Opera is dead, I was told they use microphones. I heard Tenors like Schipa Von Pataky even Gigli hardly the Dramatic Tenor types, but you could hear them in house without a Microphone, If you heard like I did Martinelli sing Radames or Otello, he was Dramatic with a lyric quality who's voice easily carried through the Orchestra and in to the back and Upper reaches of Covent Garden, with great Legato I may add and not throaty like Kaufman. I was lucky to here them and many more, Bjorling I heard in Aida and Trovatore, his voice was lovely , but it was not large and did not carry well, Stabile I heard in Falstaff the Fenton was Dino Borgioli, neither of these great Singers had large voices, but they could be heard, the other Tenor who was not to my liking was Lauri Volpi, I heard him and Gigli as well as Martinelli in Aida in Covent Garden, Lauri Volpi's fast Vibrato, I did not like, of the three Martinelli was by far the best Radames, you came out knowing you had seen a performance if he was singing, he gave it all on stage. A Great Actor as well.

@metman48 3 жыл бұрын

I have had some very complimentary reactions to my postings over the past eleven years, but nothing like your hugely entertaining and informative response, Robert. I’m quite overwhelmed. I want to thank you, of course, but I’m also desperate to ask, “Did you hear so-and so? Were they preferable to so-and-so? Was so-and-so really as good as they were cracked up to be?” For example, I agree with you about Lauri Volpi’s fast vibrato, but Martinelli’s greatness remains something of a closed book to me. I’m sure you know what I mean. I’m especially envious that you would have probably been around the ROH during the fifties and sixties when so many great but often undervalued British singers were active at Covent Garden. I’m 72, and became actively interested in opera during the late 1960s, when Scottish Opera was on the verge of its greatest years, so I wasn't starved of great performances from the likes of Charles Craig, David Ward, Shirley-Quirk, Shuard, Carlyle, Harwood, Baker and later Vishnevskaya, Parly and Tinsley. But my "archive" is nothing compared to yours, and you bring it vividly to life in your writing. I'm sure you have a book in you, or at least a Facebook page - there is already a Facebook Golden Age of Opera, but we could do with one for the UK and you have so much to offer and thank you so much for what you have shared here. I'm currently enjoying discovering Gérard Souzay. Such a beautiful voice in his youth, and I'm not as dismissive of his later recordings as many. Now, however, I'm going to take a break and listen at length to Freda Leider, absent from my turntable for too long. Thank you for jogging my memory. It is a pleasure and an honour to hear from you. Regards Jim Brooks Incidentally, the lady who sang Madelon at those 2015 Royal Opera performances pf Andrea Chenier was Elena Zilio, who was born in 1941 and made her debut in 1963.There’s a marvellous Voce di donna from the following year on You Tube at kzbin.info/www/bejne/b33Jnn6lr76Zmqs

@robertevans8010 3 жыл бұрын

@@metman48 Hello, after the War Covent Garden did continue the look and signing of many International Stars of pre war Opera, there was also a strong competition with Sadlers Wells for young British Singers of that time, singers like the Welsh Tenors David Lloyd and Edgar Evans who had very good careers and were excellent singers, my Father was friendly with both and I knew Edgar very well, he was also singing very much in Germany and Austria, Amy Shuard Marie Collier later Sutherland and Elizabeth Vaughn, Margret Price and Gwyneth Jones had enormous success on the international stage, I still think Price was the most beautiful of voices and I greatly miss her, a true friend, Jones was exceptional from the start, Certainly she was outstanding in Wagner and Strauss, but I heard her in Vienna in Fidelio bringing the House down under Karajan he was in tears, her career was a great one, I know her very well, alas we have not met for about Eight Years in Cardiff for Singer of the World competition, She would have won every competition that I saw, you talk of David Ward a wonderful voice and clear diction, he was made for Wagner and he should have had more accolades, he was much better than some of the German wonders, Carlyle and Harwood to were very good voices that were much better than any I have heard today, I heard Netrebko in the Marinsky in St Petersburg about five times in the Nineties, she had a beautiful pure Lyric Soprano Voice which was ideal for Russian grand Opera, but alas not many years later, I could not listen to this Beautiful woman who destroyed her true voice, I heard the great Emmi Leisner in Dresden in 1936, myself and my mother travelled to see a friend of hers from her student days in Paris , my mother was a Classical pianist and Welsh the same as my father, she accompanied many famous singers on the Piano, including Widdop who was a family friend Peter Dawson on occasions, my Father was friendly with both, Alfred Piccaver as well, numerous ladies , she had known Mary Garden in Paris, also Faure, who my father said had more of a Sexual look for her than Musical, this always made me laugh, my memories are wandering I am sorry, Emmi Leisner, Dresden 1936, we went to a Concert in a Large Church or cathedral, Leisner was to sing Bach and Handel the pianist was very famous, he was quite young, he must have been German, it may have been Raucheisen, but Leisner's Contralto soared in that Church it was a magnificent sound, I was then a Young Man of Seventeen and sitting next to me was a man in a Black Uniform with a Swastika armband, I was told by my mother to keep quiet and don't fiddle I was to afraid, I was over Six Feet tall, he was Taller again, when it all finished there was applause when this man turned to me and said English, I said no Welsh, ah Celt he said, he looked at me sternly put his hand in his pocket and gave me a sweet, shook my hand and kissed the hands of Frau Elsa and my Mother smiled and said Gute Nacht, Frau Elsa said he is a top Nazi, I do not really want to think what this man did, but it certainly made me aware of how frightening and intimidating he was, my mother was not happy with what she saw and we left Dresden two days later for Munich, then Paris and home. Charles Craig was a wonderful Tenor, I heard him in Italy as well as London, also the Australian Ken Neate a very good singer indeed and good company, Stuart Burrows also was excellent in Donizetti and Mozart , he was certainly very successful in his career and such a easy person, he was from Cilfynydd in south Wales as also was Sir Geraint Evans, I saw him singing first in Sadlers Wells in Tales of Hoffman he had taken over the role of Dapertutto from a ill fellow Welshman Bruce Dargeville, Evans was a Great Bass Bartitone and a fine actor and musician, I saw Stabile and Galeffi doing Falstaff later Gobbi and Milnes, Evans was the only one for me to really get in to the role, Stabile was a great artist and actor as well, but vocally Evans was in a different universe, Galeffi was good also, Gobbi I did not like, Terfel has killed his voice, I saw him when he was fifteen in an Eisteddfod and thought what a wonderful future he has, that happened, but I do believe he has overdone it that last time I saw him in Tosca, he barks the role, he needs to look at Corneil or Guelfi both of whom sang the role with great pathos and distinction. John Shirley Quirke was a fine artist and really looked good when singing, Pauline Tilsley much underrated and much better than we have today, Galina Vishnevskaya, I first heard in Moscow in 58 in a Concert, she was a very Beautiful Woman with striking features and a soothing voice, a Wonderful Aida, I saw with Elena Cernei they were like two Gladiators at each other and two Beautiful Women you will ever see on the stage, what voices, the Tenor in the performance was also very fine he was Georgian , I cannot remember how to spell his name Andhrapadzhe may be right, he should have travelled , what a loss to the world. Mark Reizen was also in this performance at the Bolshoi in 63 or 64, I speak Russian and I would say that Cernei was one of the greatest singers I ever heard. Thank you about Emilia Zilio, I believe that I have heard her before, many years ago, for me she was the opera singer that evening, I do not remember the Soprano, what a Horse, I think she was Dutch? Kaufman well he is a fake. I forgot Jimmy Johnson the lovely Irish Tenor, he was a very happy hard worker and a beautiful voice. Best regards to you, I need a sleep now.

@metman48 3 жыл бұрын

@@robertevans8010 Good afternoon, Robert. I'm delighted to read more of your musical experiences, and your memories of British singers. The first opera I can remember attending was Carmen in Aberdeen in the mid 1950s, with Barbara Howitt as a Carmen with whom I fell instantly in love. I told this story to the parents of a friend about 10 years ago, and they were thrilled, because they were friendly with Barbara Howitt, who I believe lived near them in Herefordshire at the time. I am an Aberdonian born and bred and naturally I was interested to read your mother's recollections of fellow Aberdonian Mary Garden. You would be just about old enough to have seen her last performances in Paris, but I presume it would be unlikely. I find her fascinating, a committed and skilled self-publicist yet leaving so little known beyond her art. I greatly enjoy the broadcast in which she intones, "You come to hear Melba. you come to hear Caruso, but you come to SEE me!" A pretty fair summing up of the Garden career, I'd say. Margaret Price is another great favourite. A singer of great class and, as you say, such a beautiful voice. I have a Welsh friend who has admired her throughout her career and spoke to her at length at a concert of her pupils, I think, near the end of her life. I have a very happy memory of the two of us seeing her in recital in 1991 at the Edinburgh Festival. You can hear my tape of the recital at ttps://kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWOlo6WvhL2cbNU. Like all my postings, it's under starrman (as in Kay Starr, not Ringo). I'm very puzzled as to how you found me under metman48, a You Tube identity I set up many years ago, had forgotten, and never ever used. It will also lead you to all my postings and give you an an idea of the singers I admire. We were very lucky with Scottish Opera. They brought me Geraint Evans as my first Falstaff in an unforgettable performance of such ripeness that I can see and hear him to this day. He was followed by Bruscantini, singing beautifully, but not a Falstaff by nature, so I had to wait about 30 years for the magnificent Giuseppe Taddei in a semi-pro performance at Brighton, in preparation for his Met debut in the role. David Ward excelled as Wotan and Boris Godunov, Vishnevskaya, late in the day, as a unique Lady Macbeth, followed in the role by Tinsley, who sang it far better, but didn't plumb the depths as Vishnevskaya did. I have always been a voice lover, originally of the great big band singers such as Kay Star, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, but in my teens I bought a 7" EP of Amy Shuard, and that took me firmly into the realms of opera via Régine Crespin. I have always retained a soft spot for Shuard, who I first saw as a stunning Elektra in the 1960s at CG. Soon after her death, Felix Aprahamian told me, "They bloody killed her at Covent Garden." I think he was referring at the time to overlapping performances of Amelia, Elektra and Kundry. He had a point. I enjoyed the recordings of Leonie Rysanek very much, but in 1969 I heard her on the radio as Sieglinde and was absolutely blown away by her performance. I'm well aware that she is a controversial artist, but I have no problem with that, and she's the singer I have to put to one side when having any sort of opera-related conversations. Unless it's Strauss or Wagner related. I would have loved to hear Emmi Leisner in person. A true contralto of such richness and security should certainly be heard in a great cathedral. I have never come across anyone else who knows of Elena Cernei. I used to have a splendid recital LP on Electrecord (?) but sadly I have no idea what happened to it. For the moment, let me finish with Netrebko. I always thought she had everything, apart from a slight untidiness in her vocalising, and I remain wary of her forays into dramatic territory. I have to say her Lady Macbeth at the Met was pretty magnificent, but with Turandot looming, I fear for her. Now I need to sleep a little. It's tiring, thinking of the greats of opera, isn't it? I wish we could find a way to exchange email addresses without making them public, but I don't know how. This odd mode of communication will have to do meantime. Best wishes,Jim

@Shahrdad 3 жыл бұрын

Did you have a chance to hear Callas in her vocal prime before she became thin?

@robertevans8010 3 жыл бұрын

@@Shahrdad I did hear her in her prime, I saw her in La Gioconda and Norma in 1950, I was then working in Northern Italy around Padua for the International Red Cross, she had a great voice and stage presence, but I saw her many times through the fifties and in too the Sixties, there could be bad performances and the strain of singing so many demanding roles in her early performances, made the top sometimes ugly, her life was a Tragedy from beginning to end. I blame Opera Houses certain Conductors and people who should have known better, who pushed her voice to the extreme, her sometimes violent use of it also did mean that her beautiful legato was lost, everyone wanted to own her. It is the memories of her beautiful singing in Norma or Sonnambula early which I tend to think about, I first heard her in 49 in Rome in Manon Lescaut. the role really suited her voice and her acting ability even then was very good, I think the Tenor was Prandelli .

@MrNeilsy 13 жыл бұрын

Only Nilsson surpasses Gertrude Grob Prandl in this role. She may have possible had even more power than Nilsson, but overall, Nilsson's singing of this role is unsurpassed. I'm still so grateful to hear this!

@jasonhurd4379 5 жыл бұрын

Sorry, Nilsson sounded like a witch compared to this. Pinched tone, excessively forward placement in low register producing a nasal quality, top register strident and not integrated into the rest of the voice...I could go on and on. Even singing in German, Grob-Prandl is far more Italianate than Nilsson ever was. Grob-Prandl is the Turandot Nilsson WISHED she was.

@alexanderzaphir721 5 жыл бұрын

@@jasonhurd4379 right.Gertrude ,was better than Nillson, and one of the best sopranos ever.who else could sing Elektra & robert le Diable ,like her?

@jasonhurd4379 5 жыл бұрын

@@alexanderzaphir721 When I was a boy, Nilsson was the be-all and end-all for me. I couldn't have imagined a finer Brünnhilde, Elektra or Turandot, but that was because I was young and ignorant. Hearing Frida Leider showed me what a truly great Brünnhilde and Isolde sounds like, and in my opinion Grob-Prandl's Elektra and Turandot have never been bettered.

@alexanderzaphir721 5 жыл бұрын

@@jasonhurd4379 it was not only a problem of ignorance.there were only the records of Nillson.After, the pirates came in our life.before Melodram who could even dream of being able to discover the work of Prandl, Welitsch,Synek???(smaller than Gertrude , but same technique?.we were also obliged to have only Flagstad , without being able to immagine the incomparable , majestic& full of fire interpretations of M.Laurence ?.Now with YT , we discover Gladys kuchta & Kniplova

@jasonhurd4379 5 жыл бұрын

@@alexanderzaphir721 Indeed. The work of so many great dramatics of the past is now available for us to peruse. Ever since reading her interview in the book The Last Prima Donnas, I have been waiting to hear Grob-Prandl. She is now my favorite hochdramatisch soprano. I am amazed now that I ever admired Nilsson. The shallowness and surface attraction of her voice are so apparent after hearing Grob-Prandl. I think there has never been a more superficial Brünnhilde than Nilsson. All high notes and fury, but for femininity, profundity, world-weariness in the Immolation scene...forget it. That's why I love Leider. She truly captures the character, above all the femininity, of Brünnhilde.

@ilnytska 9 жыл бұрын

She is fantastic!!! Brava!

@Taake1977 13 жыл бұрын

OMG...what a voice...

@shaun20483 15 жыл бұрын

An incredible high B'''! She's an absolute marvel

@starrman22 15 жыл бұрын

Calaf is Karl Terkal, Otellogv. There's a nice story of her singing Turandot at the Royal Opera House - in English - opposite Irish tenor James Johnston. When they'd finished rehearsing for the day, Grob Prandl would say to him, "Ah Jimmee, now we go for tea and sandwiches, yes?" She couldn't believe that he had to go straight from rehearsals at the ROH to sing at Sadlers Wells in the evening. The post war years could be hard on singers in the UK!

@Otellogv 15 жыл бұрын

I'm sure Calaf is in there somewhere!!! What a voice, she has! Incredible. A very different Turandot from Nilsson, who somewhat eclipsed Grob-Prandl's career.

@jasonhurd4379 5 жыл бұрын

Otellogv Although I have always been an ardent Nilsson fan, once I discovered Grob-Prandl I felt my loyalties shifting, slowly but surely. Maybe it's because Nilsson was so universally acclaimed, and I love an underdog. Grob-Prandl's Brünnhilde in the Moralt Ring is truly a force of nature.

@shaun20483 15 жыл бұрын

agreed Starrman! PAuline Tinsley also used to do these amazing feats!

@grig035 15 жыл бұрын

What happens at "Straniero, non tentar la fortuna"? That line is missing and the whole tape goes silent, picking up at "Gli enigmi sono tre". How come? Thanks.

@TulioHav 11 ай бұрын

Es una pena que no lo cante en italiano porque su interpretación es esencialmente muy buena.

@shaun20483 15 жыл бұрын

One can't possibly say-the voice is so big-it cannot really record as it should be

@alexanderzaphir721 5 жыл бұрын

Yes.the same things has happened also with the recordings of E.Farrell

@RattusYu 4 жыл бұрын

At least with smaller voices, it's easier to turn knobs and add reverbs to make the voice much bigger and the mikes won't explode.

@robertevans8010 3 жыл бұрын

@@alexanderzaphir721 Grob Prandl 's voice was twice the size of Farrell's and her's was large. I heard them both many times.

@alexanderzaphir721 3 жыл бұрын

@@robertevans8010 hi ,i 'm very glad you answer me ,i know you have a huge experience I adore the huge voices ,but only with a great technique. Gertrude is one of them . Perhaps the biggest of all. She was a victim of envy . She said about Bayreuth.....they didn't need me ,they had Varnay & Modl. .... For me everybody should need her. I 'm sure she was bigger than my so beloved Eileen ,and perhaps the biggest of all.For me she was better than Nilsson in everything. I don't remember now exactly ,it was Favero or Maria Laurenti saying that .....when Prandl sang Turandot ,the walls shook......??? I noticed some of your comments.... Melchior said ,he preferred Leider's voice to Flagstad's. I share the same opinion..... One other person i like ,also with a very accurate technique ,but of smaller size is Liane Synek ... I appreciate a lot Cuchta & Kniplova.Lippert & Gulin. Perhaps the last big voice for the German field was Schroder Feinen ,but unfortunately didn't last so long. Have you ever had the chance to see Maria Nemeth? And Ljuba...????👍👍👍👌

@robertevans8010 3 жыл бұрын

@@alexanderzaphir721 Nemeth sang in Covent Garden in Otello with Martinelli in one of the performances, Welitsch was a lovely red headed lady whom I met once in Vienna , my wife and myself were having a Coffee in the street, when who should come along bouncing , was Ljuba she sat down at the next table she was quite young then this was in 1951 the city was still under reconstruction, she had a dog with her, which she fed sausages, much to the disgust of some around us, I found her very pretty, she spoke with my wife who was Danish, in German which I speak as well and we talked of the working men across the road, who were repairing water mains, she said they kept me awake in the night, I sing Tomorrow, I said I hope it goes well, Strauss, I assume it was Salome, I like Puccini, they want me to sing Strauss. This woman was a very great singer, I have no doubt she was difficult, she was very direct in her speech and really was just playing with people, she was adorable.I do not know some of the singers Gulin I heard in the Eighties I remember with Domingo in Otello the others are out of my memory, sorry, I tend to think more of my Parents as I have got older, my grandchildren and their offspring , I have so many, are Collating my Fathers really massive collection of notes essays and Diaries which he did of every performance he took part in, including singers conductors and the same with Concerts as well. His Favourites were Caruso and Martinelli in the Italian Tenors, German Tenors Wagner Laubenthal and Sembach, French/Belgian Franz, Annseau Russians Smirnov and Sobinov whom he compared with Martinelli, they were True Tenors he said with ringing voices, others were Cortis, Roswaenge, Melchior who he said was the greatest Wagnerian Tenor he ever heard and he heard De Reszke and Tamagno, he had big liking for two friends Widdop and Piccaver, who I knew as well. Soprano's was easy for him, Ponselle and Destinn , Contralto's Kirkby Lunn and Sigrid Onegin, Baritones also easy in Italian, Ruffo and Stracciari, German Bockelmann and Schlussnus who he thinks was a magnificent voice, I heard him in Tannhauser he was a great singer, Basses he said there could be so many great basses, he has listed people I have never heard of, but three stand out, Chaliapin, Plancon and Mardones, Conductors he did not like Furtwangler, he liked Lawrence Collingwood and Albert Coates , Beecham was a happy man, he says, Bellezza was extremely accomplished, he disliked Goosens , very much approved of Fritz Reiner and Percy Pitt. Caruso was from another world to him, my father had been trained as a Tenor in Italy, in Turin, his teacher who I will have to find, was i know actually a Russian who had sung for the Imperial Court in Russia in the 1860's and 70's and also in other leading theatres, he had sung with Patti, whom my father met very early in his life. He met Patti after winning the Singers prize in an Eisteddfod in his local area he was just over 16 years of age and one of the judges was the Welsh Tenor Ben Davies who was a friend of Patti and Sir Charles Santley. Davies brought my father over to Santley who said that if he wished he could arrange for Singing lessons and training , but first he said you must become a man, your voice has strength and power let it develop, I will allow you to attend singing lessons before real Training. he did thid and in 1896/7 he embarked for Italy having learned to speak Italian, and French, in the year developing, he first heard Caruso in 1898 even then he was regarded by many as the greatest tenor in Italy, Tamagno a friend of Caruso was so prophetic in 1897 when he said Caruso will be the Greatest and is the greatest Tenor already, my father was shocked , he had only heard voices in Training or competition, he said there were people weeping around him and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, I was totally enthralled by the voice, Madame Carelli was wiping the tears from her eyes, this was in Genoa I believe , Caruso, sang many performances at Covent Garden and at the Albert Hall, he never let the people down, my Father said his performances in The Huguenots Faust and Rigolletto will never leave his memory, his voice was Large Powerful with many shadings colours and dynamics to allow the words he was singing to be understood what they really meant within the voice, Chaliapin said Caruso was a voice of a thousand shades and it was an artists palette of colour, he will be immortal, how true from Caruso's great friend and colleague, Caruso definitely did have an High C on Full Chest, he sang this note regular at Covent Garden and what I have heard is the same as the vast Albert Hall, it would ring in the Gods before covering the audience with sound. He admired Martinelli in different ways and I when first hearing his voice and appearance concurred. He is another totally individual singer and he was also a very fine actor, he looked the part on the stage and his Nobility and the way he moved made people watch him, he was also a master of this great art.

@williammaddox3339 Жыл бұрын

I just heard her for the first a few minutes ago singing Brunnhilde's battle cry and it was great. But the high notes here are not good; they lack ring and are very, very pushed.